David Cross - Let America Laugh

Amazon.com

Let America Laugh is an intermittently entertaining, fly-on-the-wall DVD sidebar to David Cross's live comedy CD from Sub Pop, Shut Up, You F**king Baby! Shot on a low-tech, digital camcorder, Let America Laugh captures the ups and downs (mostly downs) of Cross's 2002 tour of North American clubs. Notable sequences find the Mr. Show star jerking around a rude and uncooperative Nashville club owner, attending a wee-hours party at a Memphis video store (it looks exactly as one might imagine), surviving a double booking in Vancouver, and shooting fireworks from a Minneapolis playground. Much of this looks like concert-tour hell, but there are highlights, too: A stop at Experience Music Project in Seattle, a funny encounter with Cross's comic partner, Bob Odenkirk, in a Los Angeles store, and a relaxed, hometown show in Atlanta. There are bits and pieces of routines here, but this DVD is more travelogue than showcase. --Tom Keogh

Description

This is a feature-length documentary of David Cross's entire North American comedy tour. This IS NOT a concert film.

Customer Reviews:

Very funny and revealing concert film.......2007-08-02

I have always been a fan of David Cross and with his brilliant role as Dr. Tobias Funke on Arrested Development I will be one for life. I wasn't familiar with his stand up material when I bought the double CD Shut Up You F'ing Baby that this film is a companion piece to. I was not a huge fan of the CD there were several funny bits but I didn't like it as much. I much rather prefer this film which documents his tour of clubs and colleges in support of the CD. David encounters all kinds of people and screws with those who try to screw with him. First up is a club owner who is uncooperative with Cross and who doesn't like it when Cross rips into him onstage. He throws Cross out of the club but David remains in his dressing room drinking with some friends for over an hour trying to fit a poster and a CD into his bag. He does this to the annoyance of the club owner who is being filmed the whole time. Next up he meets his sister Juli at a show and she is amazed at how many fans he has. She goes backstage after the show and is pissed when David won't let her drink since she has to drive home. The scene is funny to see big brother David protective of his little sister. Unfortunately nobody stopped the rest of the people that Cross encounters from drinking. He encounters several hecklers who are inebriated and interrupt his show. He invites them onstage and ridicules them. What makes Cross so funny is his sarcasm and quickness and he is able to reduce these people who have stopped his show without them even being aware. He performs in a cramped bar that is full of drunks who yell and shout at him so much that it prompts him to walk out. David also has to contend with people that are supposed to be putting him up and providing meals who of course don't so it's not uncommon for him to go days without a meal and proper sleep. Add to that interviewer Gordon Downs who asks him questions from a previously published interview and you can see how David would get frustrated. Its a good portrait of what stand up comedians have to go through being on the road travelling from show to show and having to endure hecklers and all other manner of annoyances. In the midst of all this when David is really frustrated he runs into best friend and Mr. Show co-creator Bob Odenkirk and the two share a laugh. Its a nice scene that shows some much needed relief for Cross. If you are a fan of David you will certainly appreciate him more after watching this one and there is plenty of funny stuff in the film. The only complaint I have with it is rather than be a straight concert film it is framed by scenes of David working for a major corporation and being called into his boss's office who has just discovered this DVD. He is shocked at the lewdness of Cross's material and calls in his fake wife and daughter to expose to them what kind of a man Cross really is. These scenes slowed the film down but the final one was comical and related to some of David's onstage material. With that minor complaint being said this was one funny and eye opening doc.

This movie is great!.......2007-05-12

I personally don't understand what all the bad reviews have been about. Maybe they're from people who can't comprehend the level of David's genius. Whether you're tired of our current administration, religion, racism, or just plain ignorant people. Cross' comedy will make you fall on the floor laughing. He manages to be ridiculously commical, while insightful at the same time. It's like listening to Gello Biafra combined with Jerry Seinfeld. I would definatly recommend this purchase. Also, "The Pride is Back," and his DVD "Let America Laugh" are really good too. Personally, I'm not that fond of "Shut up you F*ing baby" though.

Dirty Hippies.......2007-03-29

Great Documentary! This is not just his stand up. This is more about Cross traveling the country and interacting with people. Its rednecks and tools haggling him at his own shows and how he handles them. If you like cross than you need to buy this, you will not be disapointed. I promise you that. until a dvd comes out of his live shows this is the next best. If you don't like DAvid Cross, go read a bible!

Mean Spirited.......2007-01-19

Don't get me wrong. Stand Up comics and Stand Up comedy crowds are some of the creepiest, and weird groups of people in the world, but this DVD just seems to come across as mean. It's like making fun of very hospitable retarded people, or laughing at my grandmother because she doesn't know who played guitar in the Dead Kennedys.

David and his group come across as cliquey jerks laughing at misguided, but ultimately harmless, and often times actually kind of nice, people.

The Jokes on you!!!!!!.......2006-12-20

David Cross is F*&king brilliant. His sarcasm and wit is unsurpassed. I did some research before buying this DVD and I was aware that it wouldn't be your typical "Comedy" DVD, anything David does is anything but typical. This DVD take fly on the fly approach, and gives you all access, uncensored behind the scenes tour of David Cross as he makes his way across America. If you are a huge fan of David Cross, his delivery, stories and what makes him tick, you will love this. I recommend it highly, though my friends don't get it, I don't care I can watch this over and over and still laugh my self into tears. I love the fact that you see David for who he is a regular Joe trying to make a living. This DVD isn't filled with stand up or skits, but true life day to day experience, which David manages to make hilarious. To me that what makes him the best, he can take any situation, be it hanging out in a video store after hours or just standing in the street and turn it into gold. My favorite scene is when Dave is waiting to go on stage at a club which doesn't have a back stage so he's just hanging out in the alley waiting to go on, until some random drunk kid walks up to him and asks him if he's trying to sneak in the club. Dave with all his wit realizes the potential and doesn't miss a step. He tells the kid yeah the show is sold out, but he's waiting for a friend to sneak him in. When the door opens they sneak in the back door, which happens to also be the stage entrance. Dave goes right into his performance and the kid not realizing what has just happen stumbles embarrassingly across the stage and down into the crowd. Brilliant!, this is David off stage and unplugged. Seen through his eyes unscripted, for the most part. The only grudge I have is not knowing him in real life. Does this man ever stop being funny?

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